1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and a facsimile communication method, and more especially relates to a facsimile apparatus and facsimile communication method which can send long original documents to a destination apparatus which has cut sheets of predetermined size to record the received image information thereon.
2. Related Art
One conventional facsimile apparatus has a counter circuit for counting the number of original sheets to be sent.
A count value of the counter circuit is incremented whenever each original sheet is read by the facsimile apparatus. The facsimile apparatus writes the count value at the top position of the image information of the corresponding original sheet as identification information of the sending station. The top position is called "the column of identification of the sending apparatus". The image information including the identification information having the count value is sent to the destination side. Then, the destination apparatus records the image information including the count value, which is recorded on the top of the recording sheet, and the operator of the destination side recognizes the page number of the received image information.
If the destination facsimile apparatus has predetermined size cut sheets as recording material and the transmitting facsimile apparatus sends an original image longer than the predetermined size cut sheets of the destination facsimile apparatus, the original image should be reproduced on a plurality of receiving sheets separately.
In such a case, the "column of identification of sending apparatus" is on the top of each original image corresponding to each original document page. Therefore the page information will be recorded on the first cut sheet at the destination facsimile, but on the succeeding cut sheet there will be no page information.
Thus, the conventional facsimile apparatus counts only the original document pages during transmission, so that the receiving facsimile apparatus can not record the correct page number of the original document on the cut sheets on which the original image is reproduced. Therefore, after transmission, a negotiation between the sending and receiving sides regarding the sent document will be in discord, because the original document page numbers of the sending side differ from the cut sheet numbers of the receiving side.
Further, if an error occurs during transmission, it is not easy for the receiving side to discriminate which page of information is in error because of the above mentioned reason. Hence, the image information of a page not in error could be sent twice, or the image information of a page between two pages not in error could be lacking.
For example, in an error correction mode, which is explained afterward, the following case can be considered.
In FIG. 5A, after a transmitting station T sends training signal Tr, image signal PIX1 is transmitted, and then a post-message command for a partial page PPS-MPS is transmitted.
If a receiving station R receives all of image signal PIX1 correctly, the receiving station R transmits a confirmation signal MCF representing correct reception to the transmitting station T. Then, the transmitting station T transmits the next image signal PIX2 following training signal Tr. The transmitting station T transmits a post-message command PPS-MPS following the image signal PIX2.
In the case when the training signal TR before the image signal PIX2 is not transmitted correctly to the receiving station, the receiving station cannot receive the image signal PIX2 at all and receives only the post-message command PPS-MPS.
On the other hand, in the case of FIG. 5B, if the transmitting station T does not receive the confirmation signal MCF from the receiving station R, the transmitting station T retransmits the post-message command PPS-MPS.
Thus, the receiving station R can not recognize whether the command PPS-MPS belongs to the image signal PIX2 as shown in FIG. 5A or the image signal PIX1 as shown in FIG. 5B. If the command PPS-MPS includes page information and the pages of image signals PIX1 and PIX2 are different, the receiving station might be able to discriminate which image signal the command PPS-MPS belongs to.
However, if the image signals PIX1 and PIX2 are from the same sending original sheet and are separately transmitted, e.g., if the receiving station has only cut sheets and the image signal PIX1 is for the first cut sheet and the image signal PIX2 is for the second cut sheet, the receiving station cannot recognize which image signal the command PPS-MPS belongs to even if the command PPS-MPS includes the page information.
Thus, in the case as shown in FIG. 5A, the image signal PIX2 might be lacking from the received information.